Justinian I

JUSTINIAN I, Emperor. b. ca. 482; d. 565. The troparion (see Byzantine hymnody*), ‘ό Μονογενής’ (‘The Only-begotten’), is attributed to the Emperor Justinian by the Chalcedonians, and to Severus, patriarch of Antioch, by the monophysites. The Chalcedonians held the belief, agreed at the 451 Council of Chalcedon, that Christ was one person in two natures (human and divine), while the monophysites believed that Christ possessed only one nature. The hymn takes the form of a prayer, ending with a plea for salvation: ‘Save us!’ Otherwise, it follows the traditional three-part format for summarising the mystery of the Redemption (cf. Philippians 2:6-11). The first two lines on the...